Menu

X100

I decided to take advantage of the “Photographers’ Bundle” on Adobe CC. £8 per month for the first year for LR and PS.

But alas, it turns out that you can’t use LR5 on OSX 10.6.8, it requires at least 10.7.

In the short term I could use DXO Optics Pro 9 to convert to DNG, or indeed the Adobe DNG converter and still run LR4. But as we’re paying the subscription I wanted LR5.

No problem I thought, the upgrade to OSX 9.x Maverick is free. But no! Our MacPro is too old (by a couple of months) to take the newer versions of OSX. But an upgrade to 10.7 Lion should be possible. After much seeking on the Apple website it turned out it was possible to buy via download for £14. Well that’s a lot cheaper than a new system, so wait for a code via mail, redeem from the store, run the download…

No that didn’t work very well. After many hours on the support line with Apple eventually the download happened. Upgraded to Lion (took quite a while but eventually completed and seems to be running fine).

Installed LR5 via the cloud control panel. Upgraded the catalogue, which took a couple of hours.

And now finally voila! I can import the ARW files from the A7R directly into LR, and will only use DXO where it seems necessary.

It was long and a bit painful, but it should mean we can get another 12-18 months out of the MacPro system before we need to get a new Mac/PC. At the moment I have to say a PC looks a lot more likely, although the new MacPros are technological works of art it’s possible to get a Dell Precision Workstation which will be just as fast for photography work (we really don’t need 4K video editing) at maybe 50% of the price of the Mac.

iMacs are nice, but top out at i5 processors! And the monitors are rubbish for colour accuracy.

When I’m walking the dogs I have to go to a local park. No more trips to Kew Gardens or other interesting things around London. Since the blasted dogs have arrived I’ve taken about 1/3 as many pictures as I used to.

A common polite refrain heard on return to work on a Monday morning. Mostly just polite chitter-chatter with little interest in what really happened. It’s the Monday-morning equivalent of weather talk.

Mine was busy, consumed by the kids and family stuff. Building bunk beds. Taking the girls to swimming lessons and parties. So Sunday afternoon rolled around and I fancied just lying on the sofa, but Lauren wanted to go to the park. And we were mildly curious about some new houses built near the high school, down by the canal. So we went for a drive and a walk in the park afterwards.

I wasn’t even going to bring the camera, but it’s an X100 and it will not be left at home. It weighs nothing. And it’s hardly warm out, but 15 degrees warmer than it was 10 days ago. So what the heck.

Down by the Grand Union Canal and in Boston Manor Park. Lovely sunshine. Amazing family. Clinging to a tiny little rock for a tiny fraction of time in an unbelievably vast and uncaring universe. Scared, but not alone; a life given purpose in little feet and sparkling eyes. So very grateful to simply live and experience this joy, trying to savour every minute of my brief time with them.

They tried to sneak up on a rabbit (twice). They ran across the grass and up and down hills. Strolled along the canalside. Demanded to be carried when they got tired, and then soon were off again running.

“To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase ‘terrible beauty.’ Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it’s a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else’s body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away?”